WONDER
by helvengurl
Summary: The year is 2380, an epidemic known as W.O.N.D.E.R has swept the globe. There is no more war, murders, theft. The year is 2380, an epidemic known as WONDER has swept the globe. There is no more war, murders, theft. So what is WONDER?  Full Summary inside


**I love this story. It's my spinoff of Alice in Wonderland. Don't steal, I'll track you down and kill you. Seriously.**

**Full summary:**

**The year is 2380, an epidemic known as W.O.N.D.E.R has swept the globe. There is no more war, murders, theft. People do not loose their homes, they do not go hungry. There is no need for police officers and nurses, or doctors, only BioCoders. So what is W.O.N.D.E.R, aside from an acronym that transcends lingual barriers? W.O.N.D.E.R. is simply the World's Omnipresent, Nanite- Developed Electronic Reality.**

Nanites have made healing possible with a few keystrokes. If you have any urges to do anything improper, you put on your holoband and your mind is transported to an electronic reality. W.O.N.D.E.R. has no laws. W.O.N.D.E.R is just a game. W.O.N.D.E.R is just in your head. Nothing you do there is punishable. Nothing is real. W.O.N.D.E.R. is just a dream. It's just a fantasy.

There are people like me, Alice, who have yet to log on. There are people like my friend Marsha who practically live there. I had no idea the day I logged on, was the day H.E.A.R.T.S would attack. I had no idea that my mind was trapped in the server. All I knew is that what was all in my mind, was real.

And even terminating your Avatar couldn't take it away.  


Thirty-four e-mails. _Thirty-four_! Ten of them were from Marsha Was it so hard to pick up the phone and call me? Oh, right, she can't call people when her head is stuck in W.O.N.D.E.R. And when I say stuck, I mean literally stuck. That damn holoband of hers is always on her somewhere. That girl _must_ be addicted. I deleted the spam that managed to get through my almost rock-solid filter.

The headers to all the e-mails from her were "_Date in W.O.N.D.E.R._" I really wished she would drop the subject. I had to study for school, and things I actually wanted to accomplish in the real world, where a computer glitch couldn't wipe it away in a second. I didn't have time to go hopping around W.O.N.D.E.R. Not to mention I wasn't really too fond of the idea of turning my brain into computer code and sticking it in a server. Where hackers could get to it. And mess around with it. _But do you ever see that advertised on the commercials? No. _All you see is a demented rabbit hopping across the screen and saying _"W.O.N.D.E.R. is your fantasy, so let the dream begin. I'm late! So very late! I have a date with W.O.N.D.E.R." _Does anyone realize rabbits don't talk, and most certainly don't wear waistcoats with pocket watches? Or, for that matter, that pocket watches are century-old antiques. To find one would cost you big money, and rabbits don't have money either. My point being, I didn't want to ever log into W.O.N.D.E.R. Never.

The video message attached was Marsha's avatar giving me puppy-dog eyes and saying she has a date for us all set up- I need to meet a guy. Yeah, just what I need, another complication. Then as I go on, she gets more and more firm until finally she is screaming, "Alice, I swear I will tell Lewis you like him unless I see your butt down here in W.O.N.D.E.R. right this instant. Well, fine. I'll give you a half an hour."

I hate her. Oh I hate her. "Dad, I'm going to log onto W.O.N.D.E.R, okay?"

My dad came running up the stairs and hugged me, "I'm so glad you've stopped being obstinate! Make sure you send your dad a friend request and a message saying what you think of my birthday present to you!"

I sighed. "Okay dad. But, you have to let go first." My dad had gotten me the holoband for W.O.N.D.E.R. three months ago for my birthday. He'd been waiting for me to use it forever. I guess I could tell Marsha her nagging wasn't what got me on, seeing as how my dad was pretty happy I was finally using his present.

I clipped the holoband onto my ears, took a deep breath, and pressed the small green button on the side of them. Things that looked almost like earphones jabbed into my ears, and before I could react, I fell.

The room was entirely white, but it wasn't really a room either. I was standing on a floor that was for sure. But it didn't look like a room, just a white, empty plane of existence. I took a few steps forward and then one of the automated programs popped up right in front of me. I screamed and jumped back, landing on my butt. It was that same dumb rabbit from the commercials. "You don't make sense." I taunted him, but he ignored me.

"Welcome to W.O.N.D.E.R. Please confirm your name." His voice was tinny and fake sounding.

"My name is Alice." I glared at him.

"Welcome to W.O.N.D.E.R. Alice. We've been waiting for you."

"Yeah, yeah, you've been waiting for every soul that logs on." I deadpanned. I realized my brilliant, sarcastic remarks were falling on deaf, programmed ears, but it alleviated my frustration, so I kept on making comments.

"W.O.N.D.E.R. has rid the world of crime and given the population peace, because W.O.N.D.E.R. has given the world an outlet for its improper tenancies without fear of repercussion. The world you are about to enter, Alice, is one a girl of your age has never seen. Be forewarned that this world is dangerous, more so than the real world, but also take peace in the fact that no one here can physically harm you. Only your avatar is on the line here. Now if you would follow me." He hopped away. Against my better judgment I ran after him until we stopped by a rabbit hole.

"What now, Dumbo?" I panted. I giggled a little because I remembered a long time ago (Dad put a weird disk into an adapter for our T.V, since our T.V. only took microchips instead of something he called a 'DVD'). Dad said it was Great-Grandpa's. It had an elephant named Dumbo and clowns hopping around. The weird scene with the pink elephants after Dumbo got drunk had given me nightmares. I guess the kids a hundred and fifty years ago were made of tougher stuff.

"Before you go down the Rabbit Hole, Alice, you must listen to how W.O.N.D.E.R. works. Walking and chatting are just like in real life. Earning money can be done by completing quests or taking a job for a night. You will start off with a gift from our programmers, 100 credits and a small item. W.O.N.D.E.R. takes your brainwaves and communicates to them through the bionanites everyone has in their brain. This communication is key to making the world around you seem real. Your body in the real world is currently experiencing REM sleep, which is what makes W.O.N.D.E.R. so convenient. During the time you would sleep and do nothing, this time is utilized to live out your fantasies. To log out you simply think the words 'Log out of W.O.N.D.E.R.' and concentrate on them until you wake up in the real world. Emergency logout procedures involve terminating your avatar that is, essentially killing yourself. Do not worry though, you can log back in W.O.N.D.E.R. whenever you want to still, only your avatar has been harmed; _you_ are still safe. If you understand this and whatever risks it implicates, you may follow me down the Rabbit Hole. If not, you simply log out." And then he hopped down the Rabbit Hole. I followed him.

I landed in a small room lined with clothes with a looking glass on one end. The damn rabbit stood right beside it. "Please pick out your avatar's appearance. If you wish to change physical appearances, stand in front of the mirror and wish for it. It will come true. When you are done, please jump into the mirror, and enjoy W.O.N.D.E.R. And keep in mind, there always seems to be a slight breeze here." And then, he disappeared. I decided I wanted to look a little insane. After all, as the rabbit was so emphatic about, none of it was real. I might as well look crazy. I grabbed this weird bodysuit. And, I use the term bodysuit loosely, since while it did cover most of me on the top (it even looped down around my middle fingers) it only went to right above my knees and had some lace trimming it. Weird. I grabbed a skirt that happened to be white lace too, but the bodysuit clung too tight on my butt for me to not somehow cover it up. I was glad it had red suspenders, because I wouldn't have to worry about it falling down. I grabbed some mismatched blue and black socks (one was stripped and the other polka dotted. Not that I really cared), a black choker with a rose on it, and black combat boots. I stood in front of the mirror, surprised I kind of liked the way I looked. _I wish my hair was longer. And less orangey and more red. _My hair _actually _grew longer and changed color. I almost jumped through the mirror, and then I thought better of the stupid rabbit's last words.

I ran back and grabbed a short-sleeved, blue plaid hoodie, pulled it on, and hopped through, cursing that I should have wished for weird looking eyes instead of just blue ones.

This time, I hit the pavement and looked up, seeing a huge mirror right over me. My butt hurt where I had landed on it. "I thought you said it didn't hurt, you liar!" I yelled at it before it disappeared. I _really _hated that damn rabbit.

Before I could react to anything else, around came Marsha, with her white and green tank tops and long-sleeved hoodie with red hearts all over it rippling from the breeze. Of course, the denim skirt was tight enough that _nothing_ was really going to move it, aside from a really cute guy, although the pink and green ruffles were flipping around a little. And why was she wearing such ratty, hole-covered black hose? At least she had on pink knee-high socks and decent (if clunky) black shoes. Her curly blond hair was just as it was in real life- _except for the horrendous white rabbit ears. _"You actually came, Alice!" She tackled me to the ground with one of her flying hugs, her heart and rabbit necklaces hitting me in the face as she did so.

"Oh my god, Marsha, what happened to your face?" I yelled. I could make out a vague shape, and hear her, but still, she had no face. In fact, now that I looked around, no one did. "Marsha, what in the hell is going on, why aren't there faces?"

Marsha giggled. "You don't see someone's face until you friend them, silly." She handed me a bottle labeled _Drink Me._

"What is this?" I demanded.

"A friend request, silly! Drink it!" Hoping it wasn't poison, I drank it. It tasted sweet. In fact, it tasted _really_ good. I wanted more. Aside from wanting more, I could now see Marsha's face, which made me considerably less freaked out that my friend wasn't faceless.

"Well silly, give me one!" She said.

"Um… how?" I asked, patting myself down to make sure they weren't stuck to me or something.

She giggled again. "Think the word 'friend'." I did, and a bottle appeared in my hand. I handed it to her, and she downed it in a second. "You're so cute, Alice!" she hiccupped and then handed me a small cake labeled _Eat Me_. "Eat it! It's your present from the programmers! Mine was my necklaces; I wonder what you'll get?" I ate it, wondering why I was eating a present, but then my credits stood in a stack before me, before disappearing.

"What happened to them?" I asked.

"Oh, they went into your mind!" She said. "All you have to do to get them now is think the amount of credits you need and they'll appear in your hand! And look!" She picked up a black headband. "You got such a cute item!" And she stuck it in my hair, and then grabbed my hand. "We've got a date, Alice! We're going to be late!"

She dragged me along until we reached what looked like a club. I tried to tell her we were underage and couldn't drink, but the man at the door waved us in. I was about to yell at her about drinking being illegal, until I looked to my left. "Oh my god." My eyes almost bulged out of my head.

"We need to go through this place, Alice. _Shh— _ be quiet and don't stand out too much." Marsha instructed.

"Were they all just—"

"Having sex? Yeah. There are places like this all over W.O.N.D.E.R. You just need to steer clear is all." Marsha held tight to my hand.

"Over there they're- are they really?"

"Usually it's harder stuff than just smoking. No, don't look at them!"

I couldn't help but stare; drugs were almost obsolete in real life- so I'd never seen a hardcore junkie. One of them stared at me and slurred, "You're kinda pretty, girly." Marsha ran. I, for once, was thankful she was using her head. We ran into a place Marsha shouted was the 'SC.' The music was loud and grating—not the type I liked at all—and the lights flashing around gave me a headache. It sounded similar to tribal African music—that is, if it was on metal steroids.

"What are they doing?" I demanded as I watched the stage in a horrified trance.

"Alice, Alice! No, don't look, just come on!" Marsha protested, but I still couldn't pull my face away from the stage. They pulled someone up; she was screaming and pulling against them. Others were lined up there too—and with one last beat of the drums, they each killed themselves. Some shot each other, some stabbed themselves, and the girl they dragged up there was stabbed repeatedly, her throat finally viciously slit before she died. Blood splattered all over the people in the first row. I screamed. I started to run. _They just murdered a girl in cold blood._

Marsha was ahead of me, and finally we burst through a door, only to be standing in a relatively peaceful looking Japanese restaurant.

"I'm so sorry Alice!" She apologized, "I thought that you could handle the shortcut! It doesn't bother me, and you're always telling me how childish I am, I figured you could walk through easily!" I blinked at her.

"They killed a girl. They killed themselves, and that doesn't bother you?" I asked. I was crying hysterically.

"Alice, they _just _did that to their avatars. It's not real." She stated.

"Those were _still_ people deciding what to do!" I yelled.

"They can't punish you for your fantasies!" Marsha yelled back.

Two boys poked their heads around the corner. I gave another blubbering sob. They each said something to Marsha. I didn't pay attention, all I saw was the girl from the SC; falling forward, gagging on her own blood.

One nodded his head off to the one side (was he rolling his eyes at me?) and said, "Newbie's are tiresome. They act so shocked at it all. The crime had to go somewhere."

"Yeah, that _crime_ is called manslaughter and can get you the death penalty in real life." I bit back. I didn't like being treated like a kid.

The other boy that had shoulder length curly, dark brown hair tied back like you would have expected in Victorian times, with rabbit ears, handed me a potion. "You don't know me, but they taste good and it might calm you down." Then he gave the other boy a kick to the shin. "If I remember, you went and hunted down the people who killed the first person you saw in the SC."

The friend potion was so sweet—or maybe I was just so drastically off my top—that it almost made me dizzy until I finished it. I handed him one. "Please tell me I'll get used to the faceless thing."

"Yeah, after a while a lot of it doesn't seem so weird." said the boy with curly hair. He grinned, but I still wasn't in the mood for grinning.

He had on a mustard-colored long sleeve dress shirt, brown boots with red zippers up the side, grey dress pants, and a brown vest. He had grey eyes—obviously something he had wished for in the looking glass, as it was impossible to have eyes that shade naturally. He was wearing two long gold earrings in his one ear and four ties around his neck. Each tie was red— one was red and white striped, tied neatly if loosely; a red and green plaid one, draped around his neck as almost an afterthought; a brown one with red zigzags tied in a bow, and a grey one with red and gold polka dots wrapped around his neck.

"I'll let you in on a secret, most of the time it's an act. People who want to experience that out-of-body thing volunteer for that on the terms they make it as raw as possible."

I have to say, thinking that made it a little easier to handle. At least she might have wanted it. "Thanks." I nodded at him and gave a tight-lipped smile. The other boy tossed me a bottle. I drank it and reluctantly tossed him one too.

"Now ask Aydyn how he knows that." The catboy grinned, showing every pointed tooth in his head. I looked at the rabbit boy, whose name was Aydyn, apparently.

He sighed and muttered something about _killing Chester in his sleep. _(Who was Chester? The catboy?) Then he shrugged his shoulders. "It's not important."

The catboy—who I supposed was Chester—knelt down, his baggy black cargos slouching down his half-laced, beat up brown boots. Just on his pants alone, I spotted two handguns in holsters on his upper legs, a knife poking out of his boot, and it looked like something— probably a whole array of ammo—were bulging in his pockets. He had on two studded belts with clips of ammo attached to them as well. He had on a blue and purple stripped shirt with sleeves that were too long, brushing his first knuckle as opposed to his wrists. He had on a shoulder holster, with two handguns in that too. He had on a long, army-styled green trench coat, which was lined with weapons of an unimaginable array—including what looked like brass knuckles. His hair was light brown, flopping over his right eye, with a pair of similarly brown cat ears sticking out. The left ear was filled with holes, like the hem of his trench coat, and the right ear was pieced with a gold hoop— similar to the one on his dark and light brown stripped tail.

"What does the walking armory know I don't?" I deadpanned.

He flipped his tail around in my face. "Oh! I'm so hurt you don't know my name is Chester!" He gave a mock look of sorrow. I gave his tail a yank by the gold hoop. He yelped and sauntered off to a booth and flopped down. "You're no fun!" He pouted.

"I, well, I used to back up the avatars of the people who used to, well, utilize the SC's special privileges." Aydyn whispered the last part to me.

I backed away from him, yelping, "Oh my god you— you're a—" He clasped his hand over my mouth, ears twitching nervously

"At least he was until he met Maddie!" Chester said in a singsong voice from the booth. I pushed him away from me, and went to go sit down at the booth. I just wanted this double date from hell to end. Aydyn sat next to me, and I felt very uncomfortable, but I assured myself I was being paranoid. He wouldn't—I just couldn't think about it.

"People can't know I was a—" He nodded and gave the woman who dropped off a menu a tight-lipped smile and then lowered his voice, "—_hacker_." He said the word like contraband, but then according to Marsha from my briefing on the way here, hackers were hunted down by a person called Cassie who was usually called The Headhunter or Queen of Hearts. The ultimate and _only_ form of order in this hellhole was a girl running around with her blade, chopping off the head of people like hackers, and apparently was only in place to protect users. Too bad she couldn't protect users from themselves and the rest of humanity. Or, you know, her own potentially unstable mind.

I glanced at the menu and then back at Aydyn, scooting away from him before devoting my attention back to the menu. "I've never had sushi before," I commented nervously to the silence.

"That is impossible!" Chester slouched on the table and looked back at Marsha dejectedly, "I thought you said we'd love her! So far she only seems to be woefully inexperienced." He grabbed the waitress as she walked by and said, "Bring seven of every kind of sushi you have. It's dire."

I gave him a disgusted look and then mocked him. "But don't you know five-year-olds don't eat anything green?" He rolled his eyes.

"But _I_ can take care of the yucky green stuff for you!" He wagged his eyebrows up and down.

"That's called pedophilia," I pointed out.

"You're so mean!" He pouted. "But you're interesting. I _like_ interesting things."

The waitress sat a huge tray down in front of us. "Lucky you," she said flatly, "We just had a walkout who ordered five of everything. It was nothing to whip up the rest." And then walked away.

I grabbed one and took a bite, surprised I didn't hate it. Chester wolfed down four without breathing between them, licking his lips and sorting through them to find his favorites. "What was the one I just ate?" I asked him, half expecting him to tell me something perverted. Instead of saying anything, he reached across the table and swiped his index finger across my lips and sniffing his finger before licking it.

"Salmon," he declared, handing me a few more. "If you liked that, you'll like these ones. They're tuna, another salmon, and crab."

"Never touch me again," I told him, and ate them. They were good. I could see why he was a fanatic about them.

Marsha and Aydyn both handed Chester some sushi. "Squab" Marsha declared with a shudder.

"You haven't even tried it!" Chester declared. I was in the same school of thought as her, for once.

"I _have_!" Aydyn declared. "And I assure you, I'd have never tried it in the first time had I known how horrible it was," he finished with a laugh.

"He'll let you tug his ears whenever you want if you eat one, Marsha." Chester said. Before Aydyn could object, she ate one (albeit with a bit of a green face). Then she reached across the table and tugged his ear, giving a giggle. Aydyn gave Chester a death glare.

Aydyn turned to me and informed me, "If you eat one, He'll let you tug on his ears whenever you want."

Before I could say that no, that was not on my list of things to do, Chester whipped out a gun, pointing it at Aydyn while lazily picking the salmon off the top of a piece of sushi. "Over your dead body, bunny boy."

I went to yank the gun out of Chester's hand (although I don't know why. If he shot Aydyn, I'd have one less hacker to worry about) but Aydyn was just as fast, pulling out a gun he also had hidden on him. "First of all, they're the ears of a HARE, there _is_ a difference. Second, is your trigger finger fast enough?"

"Why in the hell does everyone have a gun?" I yelled. "Marsha, do you?" She looked at the table before hauling her foot up (thank god I wasn't in mother mode, or I'd have yelled at her for putting her feet up on the table too) and hitting the front of it hard. A dagger shot out the back of her foot. _That_ was why the bottoms were so big! It was still weird though, to see such girly shoes pop out a dagger. "MARSHA LEE!" I yelled, "WHY IN THE HELL ARE YOU TOTING AROUND A DAGGER?"

"Um, I have two, actually." I reached over the guns to drag her up and give her a good talking too, but Chester was laughing so hard, I couldn't formulate anything.

"All because you won't just eat some sushi." He managed to choke out.

"You brought out your gun first!" I said.

"I'm not letting you tug my ears! My poor tail is still recuperating from earlier!" He pouted.

"Put down the weapons. All of them. Away!" I shouted.

"Him first." Aydyn glared at Chester, "He'd shoot me for the hell of it."

"As if all these weapons are pointing everywhere and I'm going to be without one!" Chester scoffed.

I grabbed Chester's tail by the ring, Aydyn by the ear and pulled. "Good," I said with a smile, as they both yelled about me pulling on them. "Now that I have your attention, put the damn guns away. And Marsha, your daggers too." They all mumbled and whined while putting them away. "Thank you" I said to them, and then sat down breezily and said, "Where's that squab?" As I was chewing on a piece of sushi, Chester asked why I was surprised that they all had weapons. "Because you don't just haul weapons around!"

"You do in W.O.N.D.E.R. If not you're dead." He started, and then pushed a handgun over to me with a clip of ammo. "I can spare one, but I'm not dealing with you at the shooting range. Aydyn can do that."

"I don't have anywhere to put it." I said lamely.

Chester sighed. "Get out of the booth." I got out after Aydyn got out, and he hopped over Marsha with the gun in hand. He went behind me. And then he pulled up my hooded shirt and shoved the gun down the waistband of my skirt, and stuck the clip of ammo in my pocket. "There."

"You!" I yelled at him, ready to snap his neck for his familiarity.

"What? I didn't linger enough?" He smiled at me. I grabbed a piece of sushi and threw it at him.

"Go jump off a cliff!" I snapped.

"And that cues the end of this double date" Marsha said and slid out of the booth. "Thanks guys. I'll be back later, maybe." I stood there, for a second, concentrating on the words _Log out of W.O.N.D.E.R._

"Guys" I said, shaken, "I can't log out."


End file.
